Elderly female cat, weakness in tail

[headnotheart]

Our lovely cat Mdnight doesn't seem to be able to raise her tail to the flagpost position, and so can't do her traditional cat greeting.

She's 16 and on heart and water tablets as she has a heart murmur (quite normal in elderly female felines, so our vet says).

She can sort of half raise it, can twitch it in the normal way, and doesn't seem distressed.

I am reviewing the situation, may contact vet if no better by Monday. Meanwhile, wondered if you had any thoughts?

Just had one myself - it may relate to an injury a few years ago where she fell off a table and bashed the base of her tail quite badly. She got an abcess. I took her to the vet, he said she'd sustained no permanent damage, and also said cat's abcesses are shallow and usually heal by themselves. Which it did :)

[MyLittleFluffball]

Hmm... I have no thoughts but am bumping this for you.

I think it is always a good idea to contact the vet regarding any concerns. A lack of apparent distress doesn't necessarily mean nothing is wrong with cats, as I have found out the hard way. Maybe by contacting your vet early you can be proactive/ preventative rather than reactive if there is any serious problem.

[peggotty]

It may be the old injury or maybe she's been in an altercation with another cat and got bitten in that area! My female cat recently had exactly this problem - I took her to the vets but they couldn't find any evidence of a bite in the end. She was given anti-inflammatories for a couple of days and it was fine.

[headnotheart]

Thanks for this .

When we stroke her, runnng a hand down her back and along her tail, there is no tone in her tail - she doesn't push back with her tail as it were as cats normally do. She is sitting next to me purring as I type.

Got a new cat carrier the other day, canvas with a shoulder strap, to replace the elegant looking wicker thing I've got which is heavy and unwieldy. This was before DS noticed the tail thing, am I psychic?